Tag: Down

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Take Down (The Men of the Sisterhood)

Christmastime is here, and justice is the gift that keeps on giving for the Sisterhood and their menfolk in the third part of an exhilarating series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.

Victory is sweet, but for the Sisterhood and their allies, it’s also short-lived. Now that they’ve convinced some coldblooded slum landlords to pay very dearly for their crimes, they’re ready for another mission. While Jack Emery prepares a Christmas feast at his house, the gang gathers to provide one of their own with a yuletide miracle.

Nikki, Jack’s wife, has been handling class-action lawsuits filed by victims of Andover Pharmaceuticals. A new leukemia drug was supposed to save children’s lives. Instead, it destroyed them. Andover is fighting the suit with all its wealth and influence, and Nikki is losing hope. It’s time for Jack and his crew to give Andover a taste of its own medicine―and show them that messing with the Sisterhood’s other half has all kinds of unpleasant side effects….

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The Coloring Book of Mindfulness: 50 Quotes and Designs to Help You Focus, Slow Down, De-Stress

The Coloring Book of Mindfulness includes line illustrations of the natural world, from flowers and trees, to butterflies and birds, that are specially designed to be colored in. Alongside beautiful illustrations is a collection of 50 inspirational quotes that will enable you to still the mind, and relax the body, while generating and boosting a feeling of well-being and contentment that will permeate every aspect of everyday life. The perfect gift, this is a practical way to calm the mind, while subconsciously developing self-knowledge, expanding the imagination, and nurturing creativity.

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The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers

From award-winning columnist and journalist Gillian Tett comes a brilliant examination of how our tendency to create functional departments—silos—hinders our work…and how some people and organizations can break those silos down to unleash innovation.

One of the characteristics of industrial age enterprises is that they are organized around functional departments. This organizational structure results in both limited information and restricted thinking. The Silo Effect asks these basic questions: why do humans working in modern institutions collectively act in ways that sometimes seem stupid? Why do normally clever people fail to see risks and opportunities that later seem blindingly obvious? Why, as psychologist Daniel Kahneman put it, are we sometimes so “blind to our own blindness”?

Gillian Tett, journalist and senior editor for the Financial Times, answers these questions by plumbing her background as an anthropologist and her experience reporting on the financial crisis in 2008. In The Silo Effect, she shares eight different tales of the silo syndrome, spanning Bloomberg’s City Hall in New York, the Bank of England in London, Cleveland Clinic hospital in Ohio, UBS bank in Switzerland, Facebook in San Francisco, Sony in Tokyo, the BlueMountain hedge fund, and the Chicago police. Some of these narratives illustrate how foolishly people can behave when they are mastered by silos. Others, however, show how institutions and individuals can master their silos instead. These are stories of failure and success.

From ideas about how to organize office spaces and lead teams of people with disparate expertise, Tett lays bare the silo effect and explains how people organize themselves, interact with each other, and imagine the world can take hold of an organization and lead from institutional blindness to 20/20 vision.

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Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny

The shocking, never-before-told story of the bizarre world inside the legendary Playboy Mansion – and finally the secret truth about the man who holds the key – from one of the few people who truly knows: Hef’s former number-one girlfriend and star of The Girls Next Door.

A spontaneous decision at age 21 transformed small-town Oregon girl Holly Sue Cullen into Holly Madison, Hugh Hefner’s number-one girlfriend. But like Alice’s journey into Wonderland, after Holly plunged down the rabbit hole, what seemed like a fairy tale life inside the Playboy Mansion – including A-list celebrity parties and her own number-one-rated television show for four years – quickly devolved into an oppressive routine of strict rules, manipulation, and battles with ambitious, backstabbing bunnies. Life inside the notorious mansion wasn’t a dream at all – and quickly became her nightmare. After losing her identity, her sense of self-worth, and her hope for the future, Holly found herself sitting alone in a bathtub, contemplating suicide.

But instead of ending her life, Holly chose to take charge of it.

In this shockingly candid and surprisingly moving memoir, this thoughtful and introspective woman opens up about life inside the mansion, the drugs, the sex, the abuse, the infamous parties, and her real behind-the-scenes life with Bridget, Kendra, and, of course, Mr. Playboy himself.

With great courage Holly shares the details of her subsequent troubled relationship, landing her own successful television series, and the hard work of healing, including her turn on Dancing with the Stars. A cautionary tale and a celebration of personal empowerment, Down the Rabbit Hole reminds us of the importance of fighting for our dreams – and finding the life we deserve.

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Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny

[*Read by the author – Holly Madison]

The shocking, never-before-told story of the bizarre world inside the legendary Playboy Mansion – and, finally, the secret truth about the man who holds the key – from one of the few people who truly knows: Hef’s former #1 girlfriend and star of The Girls Next Door

A spontaneous decision at age twenty-one transformed small-town Oregon girl Holly Sue Cullen into Holly Madison, Hugh Hefner’s #1 girlfriend. But like Alice’s journey into Wonderland, after Holly plunged down the rabbit hole, what seemed like a fairy-tale life inside the Playboy Mansion — including A-list celebrity parties and her own #1-rated television show for four years — quickly devolved into an oppressive routine of strict rules, manipulation, and battles with ambitious, backstabbing bunnies. Life inside the notorious Mansion wasn’t a dream at all – and quickly became her nightmare. After losing her identity, her sense of self-worth, and her hope for the future, Holly found herself sitting alone in a bathtub contemplating suicide.

But instead of ending her life, Holly chose to take charge of it.

In this shockingly candid and surprisingly moving memoir, this thoughtful and introspective woman opens up about life inside the Mansion, the drugs, the sex, the abuse, the infamous parties, and her real behind-the-scenes life with Bridget, Kendra, and, of course, Mr. Playboy himself.

With great courage, Holly shares the details of her subsequent troubled relationship, landing her own successful television series, and the hard work of healing, including her turn on Dancing with the Stars. A cautionary tale and a celebration of personal empowerment, Down the Rabbit Hole reminds us of the importance of fighting for our dreams – and finding the life we deserve.

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Woman, Put Down That Halo and Thrive!: Forging a New Path to Economic Empowerment and Self-Actualization in 2015

Freedom Economics..An intrinsic relationship exists between freedom and economics. The great struggles of humanity rose in demand for improvement of economic conditions, for access to economic wellbeing. Those epic moments in history, such as the signing of the Magna Carta, captured the new spirit of an era of progress. What does this mean for women, who have over the centuries been denied direct access to the economy, who have had to go through men to gain even the smallest level of economic security, who only now join the negotiation? A book that takes economics to the heart of the matter?the heart of women.

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Take Down (The Men of the Sisterhood)

Christmastime is here, and justice is the gift that keeps on giving for the Sisterhood and their menfolk in the third part of an exhilarating series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.

Victory is sweet, but for the Sisterhood and their allies, it’s also short-lived. Now that they’ve convinced some coldblooded slum landlords to pay very dearly for their crimes, they’re ready for another mission. While Jack Emery prepares a Christmas feast at his house, the gang gathers to provide one of their own with a yuletide miracle.

Nikki, Jack’s wife, has been handling class-action lawsuits filed by victims of Andover Pharmaceuticals. A new leukemia drug was supposed to save children’s lives. Instead, it destroyed them. Andover is fighting the suit with all its wealth and influence, and Nikki is losing hope. It’s time for Jack and his crew to give Andover a taste of its own medicine—and show them that messing with the Sisterhood’s other half has all kinds of unpleasant side effects….

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Upside Down (The Men of the Sisterhood)

Behind every member of the Sisterhood, there’s a man who knows better than to get in her way. Now the guys are bonding together, in the first in a thrilling new series from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.

Through public triumphs and private sorrows, the men in the Sisters’ lives—husbands, friends, colleagues, and lovers—have offered invaluable aid and support. In the process, they’ve become an informal brotherhood of their own, able to relate to the unique challenges and rewards of life among the vigilantes.

But after years of bit parts, the Sisterhood’s significant others are itching to take center stage. Frustrated with the limits of the criminal justice system, Nikki’s husband Jack Emery has recruited his friends Ted, Joe, Harry, Bert, Jay, and Abner. They have brand-new headquarters with state-of-the-art equipment, an unlimited bankroll, and a plaque on the door that reads BOLO Consultants. Their first case: toppling ruthless slum landlord Tyler Sandford—also lieutenant governor of Virginia. Sandford may have friends in very high places, but that’s no match for BOLO—or the women who’ve got their backs….

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All Fall Down

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner

Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician’s office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder…Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class…or if your husband ignores you?

The pills help her manage the realities of her good-looking life: that her husband is distant, that her daughter is acting out, that her father’s Alzheimer’s is worsening and her mother is barely managing to cope. She tells herself that they let her make it through her days…but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that’s becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?

With a sparkling comedic touch and a cast of unforgettable characters, this remarkable story of a woman’s slide into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again is Jennifer Weiner’s most masterful work yet.

Author One on One with Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner